In the future, the diseases that have ravaged mankind for thousands of years will be prevented. The World Health Organization has announced that “some diseases are close to being eliminated or eradicated completely, among them poliomyelitis, leprosy, neonatal tetanus, guinea-worm infection and Chagas disease.” The following graph is based on Table 4-2 in Harrison’s Infectious Diseases, 2nd Edition by Dennis Kasper and Anthony Fauci (McGraw Hill, 2013). The graph compares the annual number of pre-vaccine cases (average) to the number of cases reported in 2010.
